GUIX OS and update manager

General Discussion
1

Lately I’ve been frustrated with update managers and I decided to give GUIX OS a try. I know GUIX package installer works in Arch to some exted but I don’t have that kind of time on my hands to troubleshoot the Arch template.

For an easy install as an HVM Template:

  1. Download and verify from https://guix.gnu.org/download/
  2. qvm-create GUIX --class TemplateVM --label blue
    2GB RAM, 2 cores, 20 GB SSD.
    Give it the network card initialy (you can switch to the gateway after the install with the “flawed Netork Manager”) because it is a NetInstall.
  3. After the template creation you can clone whonix-ws-dvm into GUIX-ws and switch template to get more space or file exchange with Qubes (by switching templates).

I’m interested in the GUIX update manager more than the actual OS. I have found some software vulnerabilities already in the drivers but again… Please check it in the OS so we can speak the same language here.

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2

They also have a binary with a self extracting tarball of binaries that you could try. Its supposed to install over an existing Linux system, so you could start by cloning fedora-32, temporarily attach it to the network, and install there. The potential benefit might be that you might still have access to the normal Qubes integration tools.

After that you would need to disconnect it from the network and see if the normal updates still work or not, then see what happens with the new package manager. If it doesn’t then you need to make a choice between permanent network access for updates or not using their update tools.

It seems reasonable to try at least.

3

Thanks! I was trying to keep it uniform and unclutered from other distributions. I’ve been a long time user of Atomic (Silver Blue) and I believe the “new owners” poisoned ostree on purpose. I ditch that distribution about a year ago and it was my last Fedora after 15 years of usage. I do appreciate any feedback though on GUIX from any distribution.

4

Time’s up! I was looking for Dick Tracy and I did not find him so I’m going to ask straight up:

Wouldn’t it be nice that instead of Qubes Builder we had a GUIX binary that works with most Operating Systems including ARM and Windows? I’m sure that everybody thought it but they did not want to take the credit… Don’t be modest now!

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